Education
B.A. and M.A. in Religious Studies, Brown University
Ph.D. in Sociology, Brandeis University
Areas of Specialization
Sociology of the family, religion, gender, social theory
Honors and Awards
Alumni Fellowship Award, 2010
Background
Kathleen Jenkins came to W&M in 2005 from four years of teaching in the sociology department at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Her main areas of interests are sociology of religion and sociology of families; in particular, the rise of contemporary new religious movements and the relationship between therapeutic culture and religion. She received her Ph.D. in sociology from Brandeis University and her BA/MA in religious studies from Brown University.
Research
Her first book, Awesome Families: the Promise of Healing Relationships in the International Churches of Christ, was published with Rutgers University Press in 2005. Her current research project represents four years of ethnographic research exploring the experience of divorce and uncoupling in five religious traditions. She is working on a book manuscript based on this research now titled, Sacred Divorce: Religion, Uncoupling, and Therapeutic Culture. Kathleen was chosen in 2006 as an Engaged Scholar Fellow with the Congregational Studies Team, a program funded by the Lilly Endowment, for her work on divorce in religious communities. She has published in The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and Social Forces. She now serves as an associate editor on the editorial board of Sociology of Religion.